Prioritizing Incoming Calls During a Multi-Incident Surge
You are the sole dispatcher on a console covering a city of 120,000. At 16:47, you receive four calls within 90 seconds:
- A woman whispering that her ex-boyfriend is banging on her front door and she has a restraining order; she gives an address on Elm Street.
- A man reporting a two-car collision at 5th and Main; he says one driver is unconscious but breathing, and he is not sure if anyone else is hurt.
- A business owner reporting that a man just stole a case of beer and ran west on foot; no weapon seen.
- A child calling to say her mother fell down the stairs and is not waking up; the child is 8 years old and alone with her.
Your CAD shows one unit available (Unit 12) and two units on other calls (Unit 7 and Unit 9) with estimated clear times of 10 and 18 minutes. The nearest fire/EMS station is 6 minutes from the child's address and 9 minutes from the collision. You have no supervisor on duty.
1. Rank the four calls in order of dispatch priority and justify your ranking using the information given. What specific factors make a call higher or lower priority in this moment?
Read the worked answer
Priority order: (1) Child's mother not waking up, (2) collision with unconscious driver, (3) woman with ex-boyfriend at door, (4) beer theft.
Reasoning:
- Life threat vs. property vs. in-progress: The child's call is a medical emergency with an unresponsive patient and a minor caller who cannot provide aid; time-critical. The collision also involves an unresponsive patient, but the caller is an adult at the scene who can report changes and possibly assist. Both are life threats, but the child's situation has no capable adult on scene and the patient is alone with a child.
- Weapon / violence potential: The ex-boyfriend at the door is an in-progress confrontation with a restraining order, which carries risk of escalation. However, no weapon is mentioned and the caller is whispering, indicating she is hiding but not yet physically attacked. It ranks below immediate medical emergencies but above property crime.
- Property crime in progress: The beer theft is a property crime with no weapon and no immediate danger; it can be handled by report or later patrol.
- Resource constraints: Unit 12 is the only available unit. The child's address is 6 minutes from fire/EMS, so the correct action is to dispatch EMS immediately (not wait for Unit 12) and assign Unit 12 to the collision if EMS can handle the child's call. If EMS is unavailable, Unit 12 goes to the child. The collision can be handled by Unit 12 after EMS is en route to the child. The woman's call can be held for Unit 7 (10 min) or Unit 9 (18 min), but because it is in-progress and potentially violent, consider calling her back to keep her on the line and advise her to stay on the line with you until a unit arrives. The theft gets a phone report or queued for later.
Key factors: immediacy of life threat, presence of a capable adult, weapon/violence potential, and available resources with response times.
2. While you are dispatching EMS to the child, the woman on Elm Street calls back and says the ex-boyfriend has broken a window and is trying to climb in. You have already sent Unit 12 to the collision and EMS to the child. Unit 7 is still 8 minutes out. What do you do, and what do you tell the woman?
Read the worked answer
Action: Re-prioritize. The woman's call has escalated to an active break-in with a known suspect who is violating a restraining order. This is now an in-progress violent crime with immediate danger to the caller. Unit 7 is the closest available unit (8 minutes). Immediately reassign Unit 7 to the Elm Street address and notify them of the break-in in progress. If Unit 12 has not yet arrived at the collision, consider diverting it only if the collision patient's condition is stable and the woman's situation is more immediately life-threatening; otherwise, keep Unit 12 on the collision and request a supervisor or another unit from a neighboring area. Since no supervisor is on duty, you may need to request mutual aid per policy.
What to tell the woman: Keep her on the line, speak calmly, and instruct her to move to a room with a lock, stay away from the window, and not confront the intruder. Tell her that officers are on the way and will be there in about 8 minutes. Ask if she has a safe exit and if she can barricade herself. Do not hang up until units arrive or she is safe. Document the timeline and the suspect description for the responding officers.